Franklin turns 1!

Oh man, I have never been sad that my child had a birthday.  But I really had some emotional moments the last few days.  My baby is one.  A toddler.  He doesn't want to be swaddled or held for long, he wants to be off on his own.  He wants to explore and squirm away from my lap.  He's a big boy.
Having his birthday on Cinco de Mayo is just fun.  I could eat tacos every day.  We did- for about 4 meals in a row.  The girls have been counting on a pinata for a year now, so we invited some older kids and friends over to enjoy that.  It was a perfect afternoon with friends and food and toys.  He loved it and did not cry all afternoon.  HERE is the photo link.
Here is an update on Franklin:  His favorite foods are cheese and oranges, cherry tomatoes, blueberries and strawberries are close behind.  He loves having a small desert fork to himself to stab pieces of food and put in his mouth.
He loves anything with wheels (check out the birthday photo album).

 He loves books, really loves them although being a 3rd child, he doesn't get read to as much as the girls did.  Poor thing. His favorite of course were the touch and feel, especially Usborne "That's Not My . . . ." series.  He also loves Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton.  The girls are really good to read to him.  His favorite song is "Give Said the Little Stream" and when we are all in the car and he gets crankie, we all start singing it to him.  Franklin does love to be rocked to sleep and still doesn't go to sleep well on his own, but that is also due to sharing a room with his sisters.  He started sleeping on his tummy as soon as he could roll over, which is unlike my girls.    He can say "Hi" and "Daddy" and "baaaa" for all animals.  He can wave bye and hi and sign "more" when he's really motivated.  He gets really excited when he hasn't seen you for a while.  When I come home from something in the evening, he crawls super fast down the hall shouting "Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!" with each step.  He LOVES his daddy, would almost prefer him to me often when Stephen is home.  I love that, a lot.  He also says "uh" part of "uh-oh" when I say it.  So cute.  He's loud when he wants to be and doesn't say much most of the time.  On the night of his birthday, the girls took a bath and he always gets SUPER excited and splashes in their water while leaning over the tub, so I thought "what the heck" and put him too.  This one will be great to crack out when the boyfriends and girlfriends come over.